13 March 5778
28 February 2018
Picture of the Day:
22 Bedouin graduates from pre-IDF preparatory program for Bedouins in the northern Negev.
The News on the Israel Street
Palestinian terror in the last 48 hours . . .
Shooting attacks, “rock” and Molotov attacks, and arson attacks– Palestinian terrorists attacked in all of the following locations, and more:
the Jabel Johar and Abu Sneineh neighborhoods of Hevron, the road between Kiryat Arba and Hevron, Tekoa, Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem, Halhul, Abu Dis, Shuafat, Psagot, Karmei Tzur, Curve 160 outside of Hevron, Oranit, Sha’arei Tikva, on the road between Efrat and El Khader, El Aruv, all along the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem Road, Naama in the Jordan Valley, Hirbat Al-Mesbah, Beit Ummar, Deir Nizam, Hizma, Al-Mu’ayyir, on Route 80, Ofra, the British Police Junction in Binyamin, the Taysir checkpoint near Hevron, Ofer Camp, Road 90 near Einot Tzukim, Nabi Saleh, and Burin.
The move to annex Judea and Samaria continues . . .
Over the last year, there has been the continuing movement to enact Israeli law in Judea and Samaria. Last year, we had the application of Israeli labor laws into Area C.
Now we have an attempt by Justice Minister Shaked to change the process by which Palestinians and their cohorts in Judea and Samaria can apply for judicial redress.
A law is being proposed that will make it far more difficult for a plaintiff from Judea and Samaria to go directly to the Israel High Court of Justice. Instead, such cases will be taken to Israel district courts.
This will have the ostensible effect of reducing the workload of the Court but the underlying effect of making Judea and Samaria subject to Israeli law.
The Jerusalem Municipality kowtows . . .
. . . to the Palestinian Christian community. You will recall from yesterday’s blog that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher was closed several days ago in protest of the demand that the religious entities in Jerusalem pay taxes on land in their possession which did not have “places of worship.”
Yesterday, PM Netanyahu intervened and halted the attempt to collect taxes.
The Israel unemployment rate reaches new lows . . .
It was announced this morning that the unemployment rate last month dropped under 4% to 3.7%.
Where do former Israeli defense officials go? . . .
Straight into politics–and almost always in the same direction as they took while in the military–to the “left.”
Yesterday 33 former senior IDF commanders all announced that they are joining the left-wing Labor Party.
Speaking of the Israel political left . . .
Longtime leader of the ultra-left Meretz Party, Zahava Gal-On announced yesterday that she is stepping down for a new generation of leadership.
Gal-On said that she realized that she had no chance of winning in the coming Party elections.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
The Trump Peace Plan: The Other Shoe Drops
Can you imagine the Western Wall and Old City of Jerusalem not being under Israeli sovereignty? Apparently, the Trump Administration can.
For some time now on israelstreet, your humble servant has wondered aloud what price Israel would have to pay for President Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration and for his elimination of the U.S. visa requirement for Israelis.
And we know that a “heavy price” would have to be paid by Israel because President Trump has continually told us so.
We may be getting an idea this morning courtesy of the French who have leaked the Trump Peace Plan. Whether the outline that the French have leaked is completely accurate or even final is unknown, but at least we have a taste of what is to come.
Apparently the plan is to hold an international peace conference in Egypt to which the involved parties will be invited.
Here are five major planks of the Trump Plan:
1. There will be a demilitarized Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. The U.S. will raise $40 billion dollars to establish the infrastructure of the new state.
2. The Palestinian state will NOT be established along the 1949 Armistice Lines. The Jordan Valley as well as major Jewish community blocks will come under Israeli sovereignty.
3. Security for Area B will be turned over to the Palestinians. This will result in the Palestinians having complete administrative and security control over Areas A and B–about 40% of Judea and Samaria.
4. The Old City of Jerusalem will acquire “special status.” The four quarters of the Old City as well as the Temple Mount and Western Wall will be under control of some sort of international consortium.
5. There will be no right of return for Palestinian refugees.
Even though the Palestinians might rejoice over the tearing away of the Old City of Jerusalem from Israeli sovereignty, the Trump Peace Plan is a non-starter for the Palestinians.
To begin with, acceptance of the plan would mean a greatly reduced “Palestine”: with the Jordan Valley gone, the area of the major Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria gone, and even the Old City of Jerusalem gone–what would the Palestinians be left with? Perhaps 60% of what they claim is theirs.
But more than this, the Trump plan would spell the end of the Palestinian dream of returning 5,000,000+ so-called “Palestinian refugees” to Israel. This latter point was what stopped the Palestinians from accepting previous Israeli peace offers in 2000 and 2007; there is no way they will accept it now.
The Trump parameters will be a non-starter for most Israelis because of Jerusalem. Whereas Israel might be willing to go along with separating out the Arab neighborhoods of eastern Jerusalem from the municipality of Jerusalem, the idea that Old City’s Jewish Quarter, Western Wall, and Temple Mount will not remain under Israeli sovereignty is inconceivable.
What will happen when Israel rejects the Jerusalem part of the plan? Will Trump freeze the Embassy move? Who knows.
Interestingly, a wild card was thrown into the mix yesterday with the downgrading of the security clearance of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner–who along with Jason Greenblatt appears to be one of the architects of the Trump Peace Plan. Your humble servant doubts that Kushner will suddenly be absent from the scene, but he will no longer be front and center in the discussions.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.